Tallahassee or Bust! River Kidz and the Clean Water Rally, SLR/IRL

River Kidz
River Kidz, “Tallahassee or bust! 2-18-15 (photo by Betsy Siegel.) (Olivia Siegel, Kiele and Naia Mader.)
Save our River!
Save our River!
Tallahassee or Bust!
Tallahassee or Bust!

It’s been a long time since I was in a car full of kids for eight hours!

Three members of the River Kidz, River Mom, Nic Mader, and I took off from Martin County yesterday to make certain these kids had a voice—and an experience of a lifetime.

Today starting a 11:30 the steps of the Florida capitol will be filled with hundreds of people from across our state for Florida’s Clean Water and  Amendment 1 Rally.  Multiple organization will take part with the Sierra Club leading the way. Founding member, John Muir, must be smiling in his California grave, at the thought of Americans continuing to fight for the beauty and wonder of nature and it’s most precious resource, clean water!

(http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=354298.0&dlv_id=311281)

The ride was fun and the Kidz reviewed their new workbooks to share with the Senate Natural Resources Committee.  We created videos off our iPhones and posted them to the River Kidz Facebook Page.

(https://www.facebook.com/pages/River-Kidz/237123116309196)

It was awesome. The kids truly get it and are fulfilling their created mission statement: “to speak out, get involved and raise awareness, because we believe kids should have a voice in the future of our rivers.”

We talked about the state of our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon;  Amendment 1 and how it works; we talked about the goal for a land purchase in the Everglades Agricultural Area; we talked about the power and history of the sugar industry and then we stopped at Diary Queen and got a “blizzard!” I had an lemon-lime slush….

Blizzard anyone?
Blizzard anyone?

Caught in traffic for a solid two and a half hours outside of Gainesville, Naia, Kiele, and Olivia made the best of it while Nic and I wondered if we were going to run out gas!

Arriving at our hotel room at 8:00 PM, after showing the girls the Capitol and the campus of FSU, (Nic and I are both Gators!) we had dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. I told Nic we had to go somewhere where I could get a beer!

Nic and I were exhausted. The kids ate by themselves in a separate booth. I looked at Nic saying: Nic, you are a really good mom. She is. She was incredible yesterday pulling snacks out of secret compartments and having the patience of a saint……She smiled. ” Jacqui, they’ll remember this this rest of their lives and most important, it will help save our river….”

Teaching in the car.....
Teaching in the car…..

River Kidz is a division of the Rivers Coalition: (http://riverscoalition.org)

7 thoughts on “Tallahassee or Bust! River Kidz and the Clean Water Rally, SLR/IRL

  1. Nic is an amazing mom and Jacqui you are a mom to the river! You went above having a kid you have a movement!

  2. Outstanding, Jacqui, we’re making it a tad more difficult to dismiss us, as they surely will do. It would make an interesting entry for you to review the memos and docs from 2008 when the district promoted and voted to buy the U.S. Sugar land. There are super quotes that run in direct opposition to what the newer district governors and Scott say.

    How could the same District (in name) take such directly opposite positions?

     Karl Wickstrom, Founder Florida Sportsman 2700 S. Kanner Hwy. Stuart, FL 34994 772-219-7400 ext. 118

    From: Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch To: kywickstrom@yahoo.com Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2015 9:12 AM Subject: [New post] Tallahassee or Bust! River Kidz and the Clean Water Rally, SLR/IRL #yiv1730832543 a:hover {color:red;}#yiv1730832543 a {text-decoration:none;color:#0088cc;}#yiv1730832543 a.yiv1730832543primaryactionlink:link, #yiv1730832543 a.yiv1730832543primaryactionlink:visited {background-color:#2585B2;color:#fff;}#yiv1730832543 a.yiv1730832543primaryactionlink:hover, #yiv1730832543 a.yiv1730832543primaryactionlink:active {background-color:#11729E;color:#fff;}#yiv1730832543 WordPress.com | Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch posted: “It’s been a long time since I was in a car full of kids for eight hours!Three members of the River Kidz, River Mom, Nic Mader, and I took off from Martin County yesterday to make certain these kids had a voice—and an experience of a life” | |

  3. Nic & Jacqui: What great examples you are for the River Kidz!! These are lessons & experiences they will never forget.

  4. Go Kidz, Go! This is an experience you will never forget and you are making a huge difference. Let your voices be heard….you’ll be surprised at who is listening!

  5. Greetings I am inquiring about the fish design on the capital steps, who did that? I have an idea to use it for a fundraiser for the org. and orgs. on water conservation. So, who can I contact and speak with ? I think it would help bring a whole new group into the fold of being active and raising money at the same time. Thanks Ed Jeffrey

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